Sunday, November 9, 2008

Michael Crichton RIP

Last May, I started a post on Michael Crighton's contribution to the environmental debate. Not sure why, but I never got around to finishing it. He was an impressive man with an impressive intellect. Crighton passed away recently, much too soon: A great loss to reason, literature and the culture. Mark Steyn, far better wordsmith than I, put it thusly:

Michael Crichton was a man of formidable intelligence and boundless curiosity. The two don't go together quite as often as they should. For years, when I picked up his latest novel, I'd find myself sighing, "Of course." The books had the inevitability of all the truly great ideas - as if they had not been cooked up in his study but had always been lying there, like truffles out in the woods, and he'd just been the first hound to get to them and snuffle them out. But, of course, he got to them again and again, for over 30 years. To be sure, the characters and the prose didn't always rise to life, but the concept, the premise, the hit title usually saw him through. The critics were snippy about Crichton, but then he had the measure of the media far more than they had it of him.

Belatedly, I bring you what I started, but never finished, of Crichton detailing how beliefs, particularly beliefs in junk science, are impervious to facts:

Noted author Michael Crichton has spoken out with a very clear voice on Environmentalism and the Environmentalist Wackos that have tried to co-opt the movement. Here are some excepts from a speech he gave in 2003:
I have been asked to talk about what I consider the most important challenge facing mankind, and I have a fundamental answer. The greatest challenge facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from fantasy, truth from propaganda. Perceiving the truth has always been a challenge to mankind, but in the information age (or as I think of it, the disinformation age) it takes on a special urgency and importance.

Today, one of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists. Why do I say it's a religion? Well, just look at the beliefs. If you look carefully, you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths.


Read the entire speech. His words do him greater justice than I could ever do.

RIP, Mr. Crichton. You'll be missed.

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